“Inshallah, ya’ll!” one staffer exclaimed.
“Inshallah, we come back for 12 more of these,” Mark Crain, U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s organizing director, echoed in a weekly conference call with staffers on Wednesday.
The Arabic phrase, meaning “God willing” or “if God wills,” is a common way for Muslims to show their faith in Allah, and a preferred greeting to kick off weekly calls to coordinate efforts to elect the nation’s first Muslim senator, video obtained by The Midwesterner shows.
“We’re kicking ass!” one staffer touted on the call Wednesday.
“We are. No, that’s real, we are,” Crain said. “Say it, believe it!”
After being criticized by a Haley Stevens supporter for “speaking Arabic,” a video obtained by The Midwesterner shows Abdul El-Sayed staff and supporters saying “Inshallah” to each other on a campaign call.
Inshallah means “God willing” in Arabic: pic.twitter.com/4qg2tqeLp7
— The Midwesterner (@Th_Midwesterner) July 31, 2026
The boasting comes as an Emerson College poll of 700 Michigan Democratic primary voters this week shows El-Sayed leading Congresswoman Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, 54% to 39% in the race to replace Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Twp., with just 6% undecided.
“There is a clear age divide in the Democratic Primary: voters under 50 break for El-Sayed by 42 percentage points, 67% to 25%, and that gap tightens among voters in their 50s to a 12-point lead, and voters over 60 flip to Stevens by a 14-point margin, 53% to 39%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement.
An average of the last four polls, all from July, show El-Sayed leading Stevens 45.5% to 39.8%, according to 270toWin. Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, dropped out of the race on July 5.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face off against Republican former Congressman Mike Rogers, who is running unopposed with an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
A separate poll of 600 likely general election voters last week shows Stevens and Rogers within the 4% margin of error in a general election matchup at 45.5%-44.7%. The poll, conducted by the Glengariff Group on behalf of the Michigan Education Association and Business Leaders for Michigan, shows Rogers holds a significant lead of 49%-38.7% over El-Sayed.
The race is among a handful that are expected to determine control of Congress’ upper chamber in the 2026 midterms, and it’s become a litmus test for the Democratic Party, with Michiganders choosing between El-Sayed’s progressive politics and Stevens’ establishment credentials. El-Sayed has garnered endorsements from socialists including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Congresswomen Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, while Stevens is backed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Peters, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York.
While El-Sayed’s staffers are embracing his Muslim faith and Arabic roots, Stevens’ supporters are demanding a senator who “can represent all of us.”
Farmington Public Schools board member Angie Smith recently pointed to race as a reason she’s behind Stevens for U.S. Senate, claiming El-Sayed will only “represent one ethnicity.”
At a campaign event Friday, Smith argued “we need someone that can represent all of us, not just one race but all races.”
“The other candidate … doesn’t work a room,” she said. “You have to know how to work the room, don’t come out speaking only Arabic, don’t come out with your Arabic music on. Represent everyone.”
The event, which featured Stevens endorsements from Whitmer and South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, follows extensive coverage of questionable associations fueling El-Sayed campaign and comments during the race.
El-Sayed supporters include controversial antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, and longtime socialist leader Tom Burke, who is a big fan of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Other El-Sayed supporters include Iraqi-American activist Anas Shallal, who held a fundraiser for El-Sayed’s campaign, according to Fox News.
Shallal’s Instagram is rife with posts documenting his support for Cuba, its late dictator Fidel Castro, the Free Palestine movement, Colin Kapernick, Zohran Mamdami, and Black Panthers like Assata Shakur, who famously killed a New Jersey State Trooper during a shootout in 1973 before fleeing to Cuba.
Other known El-Sayed associates include Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, “the spiritual leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights,” one of the largest mosques in the state.
El-Sayed collected $800 in campaign contributions from Ali Elahi in 2017, and is featured in online images with the imam, Fox News reported.
Ali Elahi held memorial services for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei following U.S. military strikes that killed the Grand Ayatollah on Feb. 28.
Ali Elahi described the military attack on “our leader” as “evil,” carried out by “the most wretched hands on Earth.”
As race and religion play into the Aug. 4 primary, imams in Michigan are putting the stakes into perspective for congregants.
Shortly before Stevens’ event with Clyburn aimed at bolstering support from Black voters, an imam at American Muslim Diversity Association Masjid in Sterling Heights pointed to El-Sayed as he urged congregants to cast their ballots for “a legitimate Islamic objective.”
“When Allah will help you with your intention, the change will come,” the imam said on July 17 in a video highlighted by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “We know that Rashida Tlaib – she is a sister … she’s representing us in Congress.”
“So we have a lot of things coming in our side, the tide is changing, we need to take advantage of that and get involved,” the imam continued. “Abdul El-Sayed, if he gets elected, he’s going to be the first (Muslim) U.S. senator in the history of the United States.”
The imam, who also denied Muslims were involved in 9/11, pointed to the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, noting “they recommend to vote to serve a legitimate Islamic objective.”
“This is the fatwa from AMJA,” he said.
